Who's been to hatfield McCoy?

[jesseweaver]

Wow haven't posted on here in a long time. Anyways, me and about 15 friends (mostly quads) are going down to hatfield McCoy in April for a Thursday-Sunday trip. Staying at or near rock house I think

I know the place is huge so I was wondering what trails to hit? Looking for more difficult bike trails and any play pits/jumps would be a plus. And also which bars? Anything cool we need to check out? None of us have ever been there before

[platinum350]

Subscribing - also very interested in this place. I know this older guy (60's) and his friends go down there and says it's amazing. What is the lodging like, house rentals, camping etc?

[jesseweaver]

All I know is we have 2 fully furnished houses rented and it's supposedly pretty cheap

[platinum350]

Awesome, I'll have to look into putting a trip like that together. Have fun man.

[OldGuyonaQuad]

We went a year ago August to Rock House
We are going back to Indian Ridge the first weekend in May (thurs-mon) . Indian ridge has connector trails to Pinnacle Creek and Pocahontas (newest of the H/Mc) so we are going to ride three different trail systems in three days.

I am heading out to dinner right now but when I get back I will post some pics and links along with some tips about where you are going.

[blacknblue#2]

Ten year hatfield veteran here. Ive rode rockhouse since it was Browning fork. We are going down may 16 for 4 days. Check out trail 93 for the views. Trail 33 has a coupe awesome waterfalls on It both natural and man made. Trail 35 is technical. Trail 10is wide fn open. Be sure to check out the "rockhouse" I Want to say It's on 28. I'll give ya some more good info when I get on a real keyboard and off this dang smartphone

[jesseweaver]

Thanks a lot man exactly what I was looking for!

[quad2xtreme]

I go every year at least 3 times since 2000. I've been to every trailhead and stayed in just about every town.

My favorites stays are in the cabins at the KOA campground at Indian Ridge or Trails Lodging in Pineville. The KOA campground has top notch cabins available along with a general store. The nice thing is unloading onceand you can reach all 3 trailheads. You can ride all the way to Pineville via trails in about 2 hrs and 15 minutes.

You will drive right past another riding area called Burning Rock if you go up to Logan, WV before heading down to Pineville...which is the better way to get there regardless of what your GPS says. Burning Rock is not part of Hatfield but still a great riding area and worth a day of riding.

The great thing about Trails Lodging in Pineville is the restaurant food there is fantastic especially the baked spaghetti with meatballs. The bar is a great place to just hang out in the evenings. There is a Tutor Biscuit place right up the street along with CVS. It has high speed Internet.

Rockhouse definitely has the most difficult trails.

When we ride Rockhouse, we usually stay at the Holiday Inn Express. There is a shopping center there and a movie theatre. You have easy access to Bearwallow also.

Do you know if you are staying on the Man side or the Gilbert side?

[OldGuyonaQuad]

The connector trail from Gilbert is a 10 mile grind.

Quad thanks for the info we reserved a RV site @ the Ashland resort. One question where do you gas up if you go to Pinnacle Creek? It looks like it's 24 miles one way to the first trail in Pinnacle ( Pocahontas is much closer ). Do you go into Pineville?

[zyoung04]

Ive been goin with blacknblue#2 for about 6yrs years now to the rockhouse i believe. Its a blast. Logan wv is about 30mins away and its a decent size town with all kinds of places to eat, drink and shop. We normally venture out there maybe once or twice a weekend. But i would recommend staying away from glitter girls unless u want to see half sides of beef walking around, its not cool but good for laughs. There isnt much in gilbert or man either one their kinda like a one horse town and a bunch of coal miners. But there is some places to chow, like gilbert has a place called the blue moon kinda like a steak house/bar type place that normally has some nice scenery and some mean ribs. Man has a giovannis that is killer, or there is a lil place that looks like a run down gas station just down the street from hardees that decent i cant recall the name but its like a sports bar type deal. The last few times weve been we have always wanted to check out a bar called bottoms up in man we never have got to see what its all about yet. Im not sure if its still there or not but there was a place called club 2000 and i wouldnt go there cuz someone told us u would get something ajax wouldnt take off. All in all its something we as a group look forward in doing every year its a great time.

[blacknblue#2]

Quad2 I have to ask, Where in the rockhouse area have you stayed in a holiday inn...its not that im doubting im being serious, if i could find a holiday in within a short drive it would help out a bunch on the short 1 day 1 night trips that me and zyoung take sometimes. We usually always stay on the gilbert side. Ive stayed several places over the years and the last 5 or so I have been dedicated to fox lodge which is right on main street in gilbert. As for the trails there aint too much more info i can give. They change several times a year. The map will be color coded for the difficulty of the trail. The black and reds being the hardest. I dont know how you guys ride but be prepared is the best word of advice i can give. Wear backpacks and take plenty of supplies. Tire plugs, compressed air, oil, water, spare bolts. If you have a weak link the rockhouse will find it. Jesse If your on a bike and have another bike buddy then you need to check out the Single Track trails. I have taken a bike a few times and always wanted to ride them but never had another bike to go with me. And its too risky going alone. As much as i knwo ZYOUNG is going to hate me for this, Im going to miss my bike on May 16

[jesseweaver]

Thanks a lot guys. Yea there's a couple bikes going along so we'll for sure try some of the single track stuff. And we're staying on the man side

[quad2xtreme]

The Holiday Inn Express is in Logan so it is about a 45 minute haul to get to the trailhead in Man. We generally stay for 3 or 4 days so we like to hit at least two trailheads on any visit. Bearwallow is really close to the Holiday Inn Express...less than 10 miles for sure. There is a Best Western another 10 miles North that is cheaper...but obviously less convenient.

If you are at Indian Ridge and head over to Pinnacle Creek, go down to the trailhead. Make a right onto the road and travel about 1.5 miles. You will come to an intersection with a gas station on your left and the city of Pineville down the road on the right. You can actually ride beside the road most of the way to save your tires. It is legal to ride on/along this road all the way into Pineville. Pineville is about 4 miles from the trailhead. Even when I stay in Pineville, I trailer to the trailhead...especially in the colder months.

They sell gas at the KOA campground too. You can also get gas at the store/gas station in the town off the Pocahonas trail system. The food at the Dairy Queen-like place next store is good too. Same guy owns both businesses.

I've made the trip from Pineville to the KOA campground on my dirtbike. I will admit we were carrying gas just in case but never needed it.

[quad2xtreme]

Jesse,

We've stayed in Man a few times too in rented houses. I actually prefer it over the Gilbert side...albeit a longer drive to get there. The nice thing about Man is even the trailhead trail is a cool trail and soon you are in the midst of options. If seems like forever to get from the Gilbert side into the trails.

[quad2xtreme]

advice to anyone coming from the north and staying at the KOA campground...do not set your GPS for the campground. Set it for the town of Northfork first then go from there to the campground. If you don't, you may end up on a seriously narrow one lane road with zero options for passing another vehicle or turning around if you are pulling a big trailer. We followed the GPS from Beckley, WV to the campground once. We lucked out and made it without any issue but it could have been bad...especially at night.

[jesseweaver]

Awesome, can't wait to go check it out. Is it hard to follow trails and not get lost? Is it marked good so we can just drop the hammer and be able to figure it out or is it a lot of stopping and looking at maps?

[quad2xtreme]

Originally posted by jesseweaver
Awesome, can't wait to go check it out. Is it hard to follow trails and not get lost? Is it marked good so we can just drop the hammer and be able to figure it out or is it a lot of stopping and looking at maps?

trails are marked well especially at intersections. If you are good at remembering numbers and Left or Right you won't need to look at map much. I hate stopping so just make sure you are leading and have quick access to your map if you need it before folks have a chance to take helmet or gloves off.

Hopefully a quad as a 6-pack rack on it. You will want to have a smaller cooler with Gatorade bottles in it. Don't use crappy water bottles. They will bust. Make sure the cooler is packed with rags or towel to keep things from bouncing around. Make sure you have a 10-12' tow rope or strap with you just in case.

You will probably realize you like trailriding in the mountains even more than you liked the mx track.

[blacknblue#2]

Originally posted by quad2xtreme

You will probably realize you like trailriding in the mountains even more than you liked the mx track.


I couldnt agree more with you there. The trails down there are endless, never boring and never the same thing over....jump off this rock ledge, shoot up that hill, poweslide through that burm, Come flying up on a trail you didnt plan on taking, slam the rear brakes to get about half way lined up with it drop the clutch and re-route!!! haha Dam May cant come soon enough

[jesseweaver]

Haha I don't know about that, hard to beat a 40 man gate drop. But I've been riding the coal country in PA the last decade or so though and am liking trails more and more the older I get. I just get tired of the rocks up there!

[OldGuyonaQuad]

@ Rockhouse there is only one trail that I recall being able to put the hammer down on. As I said the connector trail from Gilbert is a 10 mile grind. We went from Gilbert to the trail head in Mann then just took the road back to our rental. Be careful when riding Rockhouse on the narrow turns. If someone is coming the other way the same time as you it's going to ruin one of your trips.

The restaurant at the foot of the connector in Gilbert is decent just order the burger not the special, trust me.

Thanks for the fuel tip when going to Pinnacle that was my biggest concern of the trip.

69 days till we load em up

[quad2xtreme]

There are a lot of great trails on Buffalo Mountain (Williamson-Matewan) too. I like to park at the trailhead and spend 2 hrs or so riding around the trails across the highway on the Williamson side then fueling up and making the trip into Matewan. You can cross over the bridge into Kentucky. Gas station is on your right. Then look for the shopping center just beyond the gas station on the left side. There is a good diner right there to eat. I have to say though that I love greasy spoon diners. :-)

It really isn't that bad of a trip for those staying in Gilbert to trailer and go to the Buffalo Mountain trailhead.

An be sure to ride around in downtown Matewan and stop up at the big wall that protects the town from flood waters. You can walk through the man door and look down to the river.

[blacknblue#2]

matewan is a very interesting historic town. And even played part back in the fued. Quad2, you ever hook up with any locals and ride the non-hatfield trails??

[OldGuyonaQuad]

Funny you should mention that black.

My brother hooked up with a local in the market last time and they offered to show us around on the local trails. I was too paranoid about re enacting a sceen from the Deliverance to take them up on it but I have heard from at least 3 friends who tell me the local trails are all of that.

[quad2xtreme]

we hired a guide for a day once when we stayed in Pineville. We met in a town about 10 miles from there. We went on some powerline climbs that were the best ever. You'd think you were at the top but it was just a flat spot and then behind that it would go up again. Some of these climbs did this 6 times.

Lots of people go off Indian Ridge too to an area called Wagon Wheel. The staircase is there.

The thing I am most amazed about is how many people have never been on the trails in each area. It is the same story over and over. From about 2000-2006 I never followed any of the signs. I've ventured down most of the trails where you weren't supposed to go.

The craziest hillclimbing around that I've seen is at Black Mountain in Harlen, Kentucky. There are climbs that aren't even doable anymore. Imagine the wild west where anything goes and they never groom anything. You contend with trails that are torn up by trucks. Some of it is hard, hard core. I've done pretty well going up some of it with 22" Razr2 tires on the 400ex. Some of it you couldn't make it up with a 4X4 utility quad. It is still fun to play on the climbs and see how far you can get.

[OldGuyonaQuad]

The nearest KOA to Northfork is over 1 hour 11 minutes away. I'm guessing you meant the Ashland Resort or perhaps it once was a KOA? The only places to stay are Ashland, Wild Willy's and Skyland resort. They are all small in size. I am trying to help find lodging for members in our group going down in May and most everything is already booked up. Ashland has nothing left but RV & tent sites. I would advise you get your reservations lined up and make sure you come well stocked. The towns are quite remote and often offer little in the way of shopping or lodging.

Also if you have never been down there before the ride will be eye opening for you. It really makes you appreciate all of the little things you have when you see how some of these people are forced to live and yet most all of them are incredibly nice. (even to us Yanks) ;)

edit:nice house n/a :(

[blacknblue#2]

Originally posted by OldGuyonaQuad

Also if you have never been down there before the ride will be eye opening for you. It really makes you appreciate all of the little things you have when you see how some of these people are forced to live and yet most all of them are incredibly nice. (even to us Yanks) ;)

edit:nice house n/a :(

From what Ive been told there is a reason some of those ppl live that way in that area. The majority of that land is owned by coal companys. They buy all the land up under the agreement that they can come in at any time, give you 30 days to move your sheet out before they take a D9 through your front door and start drilling. That info come from several locals and it makes sense. Ride around gilbert on a friday night and look at how many new body style crew cab Duramax you see with aftermarket wheels and a lift. And how many z06 corvettes you see. in a poor town of 350ppl. Theres money in those hills ive said it since 2001 but i just recently realized most of them dont spend it on something and aint legally theirs lol

[quad2xtreme]

Originally posted by OldGuyonaQuad
The nearest KOA to Northfork is over 1 hour 11 minutes away. I'm guessing you meant the Ashland Resort or perhaps it once was a KOA? The only places to stay are Ashland, Wild Willy's and Skyland resort.

Ashland was a KOA campground. Didn't realize they weren't now. It is a great place to stay. Thanks for the heads up as I have a big week long trip planned for latter part of June. I need to start making reservations.

[OldGuyonaQuad]

quad2xtreme check out his place called sam's guest house. It's a nice little 4 bedroom house 5 miles down the road from the Ashland resort. It's $150 a night weekends for up to 4 guests 5-8 it goes to $200. If we didn't have the motor home we would possibly stay there.

http://www.samguesthouse.com/Home_Page.html

It's already booked up through April & May but maybe your weekend is available.

Also I forgot to mention that my buddy took his dirt bike from Gilbert to Buffalo and crossed the same bridge you made reference to. When we went to the Honda dealer for a part the guy there said everyone rides them every where and that they are an accepted mode of transportation. I guess as long as you don't do anything stupid they leave you alone.

[quad2xtreme]

We rode by that place. It is really close to the edge of Indian Ridge on the way to Pinnacle Creek. You could easily jump on either trails system from this place...which is much closer than the 5 miles trip up the road to the campground.

[zyoung04]

One thing we always get a kick out of is calling the river in Gilbert a creek. They get fired up over that. Haha

[blacknblue#2]

Originally posted by zyoung04
One thing we always get a kick out of is calling the river in Gilbert a creek. They get fired up over that. Haha

let me just school all of you on it so that you do not get your ace kicked for slander. There are 2 waterways in Gilbert WV. A small creek that runs along St. Rt 52 and the Guyandot RIVER that flow south to north, yes you heard me right and make sure you know when your in gilbert that this RIVER runs south to north. Its not a creek and it dont run north to south. Please be sure you know this when talking to the locals in the Gilbert area....hahaha little inside joke guys but seriously ask a local about that Guyandot. youll get its history